Articles and Updates

• Rajat Radhan - 10-08-2021

While the concept of intermediaries has been on the statute book since 2000, there has lately been an increasing discourse on their responsibilities and regulation. The Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") defines an intermediary as any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits an electronic record or provides any service with respect to that record1. The definition is exhaustive in nature and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-market places and cyber cafes.

• Sawant Singh and Aditya Bhargava - 10-08-2021

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comprehensive regulatory framework for microfinance prescribes requirements such as the nature of borrowers, maximum disbursement amounts and ceilings on interest rates and other charges. However, this framework applies only to non-banking financial companies – microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs), which reportedly provide only about 30% of microfinance loans in India. The disparity in the regulatory framework between NBFC-MFIs and banks has led to disgruntlement among NBFC-MFIs, as a leading view is that they are in the vanguard of microfinance lending, and often do the heavy lifting in developing new markets.

• Gautam Bhatikar, Madhavi Doshi and Sanjeev Sambasivan - 05-08-2021

In a recent decision1, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Chennai Bench (NCLAT) held that the claims as provided in the resolution plan shall stand frozen and will be binding on the corporate debtor and its stakeholders, including the Central Government/State Government/local authorities. The NCLAT held that no person will be entitled to initiate any proceedings regarding a claim that is not part of the resolution plan approved by an adjudicating authority.

• Vasanth Rajasekaran - 09-07-2021

Home India Insolvency/Bankruptcy/Re-structuring CONTRIBUTOR Most Read: Contributor India, May 2021 ARTICLE Share Follow this topic Follow Ask a Question Question Print this Article Print Translate this page Translate India: A Primer On Pre-Packaged Insolvency Resolution Process Introduced Through The Insolvency And Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 09 July 2021 by Vasanth Rajasekaran (New Delhi) Phoenix Legal Your LinkedIn Connections with the authors 1. INTRODUCTION The Indian insolvency law framework before the year 2016 was highly fragmented and scattered across several legislations that referred matters to different judicial fora. These enactments include the Presidency Towns Insolvency Act, 1909, the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920, the Sick Industrial Companies Act, 1985, the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993, the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002, and the Companies Act, 2013. The multiplicity of adjudicating bodies that handled insolvency cases gave rise to a cobweb of jurisdictional issues and delayed the insolvency resolution process, often leading to the debtor losing its economic value over time. The Indian economy faced a crisis when the non-performing assets were piling up due to the failure of debt recovery laws, leading to more companies shutting their business. In such circumstances, a need was felt for redesigning the entire insolvency resolution landscape instead of making repairs in a bits and pieces fashion. The primary goal of the new insolvency law was to ensure that commercially ailing companies were brought back to their feet to serve the Indian economy.

• Vasanth Rajasekaran, Saurabh Babulkar and Nayantara Narayan - 06-07-2021

In recent times, several noteworthy judgments have been rendered by Indian courts in matters involving the law of arbitration in India. Some decisions rendered in the second quarter of 2021 (April - June) that discuss and set out the legal position concerning the interpretation and applicability of provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 have been summarised below: